“when we landed in Baghdad an Iraqi man got on dressed in army uniform, with seven other guards with Kalashnikovs. He asked the immigration officers why they brought us here then asked us if we wanted to come back. He said those of you who want to come back you get off, the rest of you stay where you are.

He told the immigration officers to go away and not try to send people back by force again.

So they took us back to Italy and we had to change planes there. About three people refused to move plane and they were beaten by security guards. They’ve got injuries from that. There were 130 security guards on the plane. Why did they need so many? There were even some arguments between the British and Italian securities.”

On the morning of 15th October, 39 people who had sought asylum in the UK were deported to Baghdad, Iraq on a chartered flight.

The Air Italy flight left from Stansted Airport, named “Operation Rangat” by the UK Border Agency. This was the first forced mass expulsion of people to southern Iraq from the UK.

An eyewitness told the International Federation for Iraqi Refugees “When my friends started shouting they couldn’t go back these big security guards handcuffed them and strong-armed them out of the bus onto the plane. They were treated like prisoners: it was like watching the footage from Guantanamo“

Violence and bloodshed continue in Iraq, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year. There are also widespread food shortages and lack of access to clean drinking water in many areas of Iraq.

Prior to such charter flights, deportees and any legal representatives are not told the date or flight on which they are being deported. This frustrates migrants’ opportunities for legally challenging a deportation and makes it Read the rest of this entry »

The situation for migrants in Calais has become a major news story in recent months, with the humanitarian crisis now an unavoidable reality. UK Immigration minister Phil Woolas boasts that migrants “have been locked out by one of the toughest border crossings in the world” whilst his French counterpart Éric Besson vows to make Calais a no migrant zone by the end of the year and has increased police actions in the area.

We will be holding a demonstration in solidarity with the IFIR outside the UK Border Agency, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff on Friday 17th April at 1pm. We call on all opponents of the illegal invasion of Iraq to join us. Showing solidarity Read the rest of this entry »

At the end of January, two No Borders activists from South Wales joined with others from Bristol, Brighton, London, Leeds and Newcastle to visit Calais and Lille in north-east France to begin organising for the No Border camp that is planned to happen in the region of Calais in late June this year.

Why Calais?

In 2002 an agreement between UK and French governments meant that the Red Cross running Sangatte centre in Calais was shut down. Sangatte had provided shelter for up to 2000 people and since its closure the situation for migrants in the Calais region has reached crisis point. Migrants including large groups from Read the rest of this entry »

Neither the phoney “war on terror” or dodgy fundamentalist religion!

A 32-year-old Libyan-born Cardiff man was freed in May after spending 18 months in a high security prison without charge. He won an appeal against deportation from the UK in late April after being accused of having links with Osama Bin Laden. He strongly denies being a terrorist or having Read the rest of this entry »